


To dare is to do

by dreamingbook



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Coming Out, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 09:26:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10303424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingbook/pseuds/dreamingbook
Summary: Eric and Dele come out. Eric notices some things.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello :) This is what i wrote for the montly prompt challenge. I thought I should try it out.  
> I hope you enjoy this and please let me know what you think. I apologize for all the mistakes that might occur.
> 
> I used the Word prompt : 
> 
> “Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.  
> These, our bodies, possessed by light.  
> Tell me we’ll never get used to it. “ 
> 
> -Richard Siken

 

 

When the last whistle blows, Eric's heart stops beating, his lungs stop breathing and he feels like he’s floating. The screams of the crowd are loud and deafening but he feels like someone has wrapped him in cotton. 

 

They just did it. They’ve won the title. 

 

They’ve won and Eric doesn’t move, doesn’t even know what’s going on .

When he feels a familiar body wrap itself around him, everything starts to get clearer. He sees white and blue and feels hot lips against his ear. He hugs Dele back, strong and fierce, doesn’t want to let go. Nothing matters anymore.

 

_ They’ve won.  _

They’ve won the league and now Eric wants to win something too. 

 

They have  talked about it, late nights and early mornings. Maybe Dele has forgotten about it, maybe he didn’t but Eric needs to know. 

 

He entangles himself from his teammate before taking a step back and closing his eyes. He knows Dele is staring at him, maybe he knows what Eric is about to do, maybe he just doesn’t care. When their eyes meet, it’s written in them. 

 

_ Tell me how love will ruin us.  _

 

Eric doesn’t have an answer.

 

It’s brown against blue and time stops running. They’re still surrounded by thousands of  people but it feels like they’re all alone.

 

When Dele’s lips twitch, his eyes start sparkling with a hunger Eric has never seen before. It’s then when Eric knows. 

 

_ To dare is to do. _

 

It’s what their team stands for, a way they all should embrace living and yet still no one ever does. But Eric has long stopped giving something about other people's opinions about him. It’s different with Dele, but Eric understands. It’s not easy. 

_ This _ is not easy, but he is daring, so he will be doing.

 

It all goes fast. One second he is thinking, the next he is living. His heart beats faster than ever, but it’s too late to back out. When his lips meet Deles, the voices around him are gone, there’s nothing but their souls singing.  Dele’s lips are soft and warm and Eric can still taste the salt, the sweat and the tears it had taken them to get to this point. 

When he can’t take it anymore, he presses their foreheads together, eyes still closed. 

 

“Tell me again” he whispers.

 

_ Tell me how love will ruin us. _

__

 

The storm that follows is a big one. It’s a whirlwind but Tottenham winning the league is a hurricane, so they don’t get that much attention. It’s still windy Eric guesses but he’s glad that they get it over quickly.

 

The first time Eric actually realises what he has done, what  _ they _ have done, he’s walking his dog just outside his home, leash in one hand his phone in the other. 

It’s monday and it’s june and Eric can smell the summer already. He doesn’t wish to be in Portugal that often anymore, actually enjoying the rare warm days he’s got in Britain. 

 

The field he is walking along is green and he can see flowers blooming near the path, yellow and bright. They’re buttercups, small and delicate and Eric wonders if he should pick some up for his sisters or Dele , knowing  the latter secretly enjoys getting flowers.

Dele has never told him, but Eric notices the small smile he gets every time Eric comes home with a bunch of them. 

He’s just thinking about maybe going to the florist, when he spots the young boy sitting on the grass looking thoughtful. Eric doesn’t really pay attention, just nods a small hello before walking by, his dog barking happily. 

The boy's eyes grow wide before he starts approaching and Eric stops in his tracks. He’s dressed in dark jeans and  a simple grey shirt, the thin cotton hanging loosely over his skinny frame. He looks frightened and Eric hopes it’s not because of him. 

 

“Can I help you?” Eric asks because the boy looks so lost, that Eric has to do something. 

 

“Do you want to take a photo”  he asks again, because the boy still hasn’t said anything. He’s still looking at Eric, hands nervously playing with the armband on his wrist . It’s a rainbow Eric notices .

 

The boy just shakes his head, finally finding his voice.

 

“No, just want to thank you actually.” 

 

“Thank me?” For a minute Eric is dumbfounded, doesn’t understand what a 15 year old boy could thank him for.

“You taught me to be brave” he continues. “I know now that I can  play football too” 

 

The words break Eric’s heart but at the same time heal it, so he can’t help the big smile he’s wearing for the rest of the day.

 

__

The next time it happens, it’s two girls. He meets them in the parking lot after grocery shopping. First he thinks he is getting mobbed when he sees the girls running towards him. It’s already dark and the parking lot only fairly lit, making it difficult to see anything properly. What he does see though is them holding hands. They’re smiling and before he knows it he’s got something pressed into his hand. It’s a letter, heavy like someone's written a book inside of it. 

 

“It’s from my mum” one of the girls says. She’s all dark hair and skin, while her girlfriends looking the opposite. They remind him of him and Dele and something warm spreads inside his chest.

 

“She wants to say thanks” 

Eric tells himself it’s the allergies when he starts tearing up while reading the letter. He hangs it up on his fridge.

 

It’s then when Eric starts wonder.

 

__

 

“Maybe we really did something right in our lives“ Eric tells Dele later when they lie together in bed, snuggled beneath the warm blankets. 

 

“Hmm“ Dele just hums, already half asleep. 

 

“Maybe we have actually changed something.” 

 

“What do you mean?“ Dele asks yawning, hands finding Eric's before intertwining them.  

 

“The kiss, us coming out…” Eric trails off. “I always thought we did for us you know, to stop hiding and just to be ourselves. But it’s not us who needed it the most.” He pauses before kissing Deles knuckles. “It’s everyone who needs it.”

 

“It didn’t ruin us“ Dele states, it’s soft and barely audible but Eric still can make out the words. 

 

_ It won’t ruin us. _

  
  


There is another thing Eric knows and that’s that he’ll never get used to it.  Not to the way football _treats_ him, the way Dele _loves_ him and the way he’s giving strength to people  _ like  _ him.

  
  


He’ll never get used to it and he’ll never want to.

  
  


 


End file.
